Chaos Theory
by Erik Thomas Stephans
Summary: Sirius remained the Secret Keeper for the Potters, protecting Harry and his parents from the Dark Lord. But James gets fed up and divorces Lily to fight the Dark Lord. Lily remarries an old flame and has his child. Who might Harry become in this AU?


**Chaos Theory**

_By Angelis Raye_

_Prologue: A Prelude to Insanity_

It was a night like any other: Lily put Harry to bed and headed into the next room to the nursery with her husband, James. They cuddled up together in their own bed, and prepared to sleep the night hours away. Only two hours later, however, Lily awoke, screaming.

"What's wrong?" James asked, frantic.

"Oh, James," she said, her voice coming out more like a breath than actual speech, hot tears pouring out of her eyes, mumbling things that likely had to do with Harry and his safety. With all the things happening in the war at the moment, most parents that opposed the Dark Lord were likely experiencing much of the same sort of feeling, even if they didn't acknowledge it publicly.

"Lily," James called to her, gently. "_Lily_, Harry's fine. There's no need to be so worried. Everything's going to be just fine…."

Unfortunately, the morning had horrible news for the couple. Albus Dumbledore dropped in after breakfast to update them on what was happening in the Wizarding world while they were safe and secure in Godric's Hallow. He appeared to be more distraught than before, his face forced into a slight smile as he greeted Lily and James respectively.

"I'm sorry to inform you both that Alice and Frank Longbottom were killed last night in the Death Eater attack," he paused here to gauge the state of the Potters. The two were holding it together as only those of Gryffindor courage could, their hands clenched together, but standing firm together, nonetheless. "It has come to my attention that somehow Voldemort has discovered something about the Prophesy that involves both your son and Neville. I'm not sure exactly how he came to possess this information, but according to the Auror's speculation, Alice and Frank were tortured by Bellatrix Black until they gave up the location of where their son was staying. Early this morning, the house was found demolished with three bodies inside and a dark mark hanging above the ruins.

"Because of this, I strongly urge the two of you to keep hiding under the _Fidelus_ with Sirius as your secret keeper and not to make any contact with anyone other than me or Sirius." Albus looked both of them in the eye, more serious than other times before. "These are dark days, and I'm sure that the both you -- Lily, James – want to keep Harry safe from Voldemort and the Death Eaters he's sent to find him."

"Thank you, Albus," Lily whispered, her green eyes burning like a supernatural fire within her.

--

The past few months had been torture with how James would keep on going about how it appeared that he'd _never _get do his job as an Auror or as a member of the Order of Phoenix. And seeing Dumbledore again today hadn't given her husband any optimism for the future.

"I just can't take it any more! Being locked up for so long, not allowed to do anything to help the Order, stuck in our little house so that nothing can harm a hair on our bloody heads," James seethed, rage evident in his demeanour and tone.

Lily merely sighed, brushing her red hair out of her face as she put away of dinner, wishing she could make James see reason. At the moment, however, any attempts on that front would merit only more argument when he was so worked up over the whole ordeal. Staying with James on times like these… she was glad she had Severus to go to when she was allowed to get out of the house. Of course, James didn't know about any of this. How could he? She'd kept this more secret than where they were living – and that was to say something, since she couldn't say a word about Godric's Hallow to anyone because of the charm protecting them.

But with the way that James was acting, lately, it wouldn't be long until things escalated and they ended up divorcing. He'd threatened it a few times, now, in the past few months. So much for being happily married to a loving husband who was understanding, charming, and a fantastic father – recently, James was anything but.

_Any day now_, she remembered thinking to herself just a few months before James finally got so feed up with things that he served her the paperwork, himself.

--

On another normal night, three years later, Lily tucked a young Harry in after reading him his bedtime story, slipping back into the room next door. Upon returning to the nice, warm, and welcoming bed, her husband kissed her in greeting.

"I love you so much, Lily," he whispered to her, caressing her flame-like locks with his hands, taking in her beauty that was framed so perfectly in the moonlight that shone through the window curtains.

"Hm… I love you, too, Severus," she returned, melting into his touch.

--

Despite the fact that Severus was a Death Eater, he'd become a spy because of Lily. Everything was for Lily, in his world. Joining the Death Eater ranks had been a horrible mistake; because of him Lily's life was a mess. And_ that_ was an understatement.

They'd gotten married shortly after James had given her the divorce papers to fill out and file. Severus took Harry into his own custody, officially adopting him a year and a half later. The boy even had his name, now, which was a great relief for Severus – the least amount of influence James Potter had on _his_ child, the better. It was horrible enough that the man was allowed to have weekend visits with Harry, taking the impressionable boy to the Order of the Phoenix Head Quarters, where he now lived with Sirius.

Lily was pregnant again. She had found out just a few months ago after Harry's adoption finally went through. Severus remembered the look on Lily's face when she came home after her visit to Mungo's – she'd never looked happier.

How fitting that, throughout that entire time, he was so deep in his own problems that he neglected to notice how his wife had been seeing another man when she went out on those few select days that Albus allowed. Albus, himself, hadn't realized this until Lily announced that she was getting remarried.

Oh, and the look on _Potter's_ face when Lily told him that: priceless. Severus was grateful to whatever higher powers that be allowed him to witness such a scene. Needless to say, James couldn't think of a single coherent thing to say for about ten minutes before screaming at Severus, threatening the Potions Master. This ended up with the rest of the occupants in the room (Minerva, Arthur Weasley, Albus, etc.) trying to frantically pry James Potter's hands off of their prized informant.

Severus was still a Death Eater and yet he was the foster father of the one child who could bring about the downfall of his "master", the Dark Lord. How on earth did he manage to get away with this?

The answer is simpler than one might think: he offered to become a spy for his "master", taking a place in Albus Dumbledor's Order of the Phoenix, gathering sensitive information and so forth. Although this put him in a rather awkward position, he maintained it with ease, spying on the Dark Lord for Albus at the same time. Who did he truly serve? That question is also answered simply: Lily.

Lily was his sunshine, his life, the reason why he kept doing what he did. The danger from doing these things originating, too, from the decisions he made for Lily's sake. But he kept the forces that would harm her and Harry at bay by what he did.

He kept the Dark Lord appeased by feeding him enough information while he spied on the Dark Lord, himself, to report back to Albus Dumbledore. There was a cautious balance between how much information was too much and when to let one side have the advantage and when not to. After all, his wife, and Harry, and their unborn child's life were at risk if he made a slight miscalculation.

On top of all of this pressure, Severus Snape still found the time to be a good husband (a much better one than Potter had, according to Lily), a wonderful father to Harry (who, thanks to him, would become intelligent, clever, and charming), as well as a fair Professor to his students at Hogwarts. Severus had no idea how he managed such a load, but he did, passing with flying colours, one might add.

The only thing left to do was maintain all of it, actively, of course, as no other method would prove functional to everything that he was faced with. At the end of each day, he sank into the cushions on the couch, wondering if tomorrow would be the last day he could spend in paradise….

_To be continued…_

--

Great thanks go to by Beta, Katy, who is also the inventor of this wonderful work of fanfiction. To be honest, we were sitting in the theatre on the opening night of _Terminator: Salvation_, writing and plotting out the basics of two different versions of how the whole story could go as we were waiting for the movie to start. Wondrous, I must say – and without Katy, this wouldn't even have begun to exist. She's also the one who determined that I should write "Scenario Two": the one that I was least inclined to write. Apparently, I have far too many "dark" stories that I'm writing. I'm always welcome to a new perspective and hope that this will turn out well.

More thanks go to my patient readers, who must be wondering why I'm starting yet _another Harry Potter_ fan fiction. Please, be patient, the others will be worked on in due time, especially WAITS, I assure you.


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